>> this is bbc world news. funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to know your business, offering specialized solutions and capital to help you meet your growth objectives. we offer expertise and tailored solutions for small businesses and major corporations. what can we do for you?

>> and now, bbc world news. >> president obama on the comfort trail in new jersey, a state devastated by the storm. >> we are here for you, and we will not forget. we will follow up to make sure that you get all the help that you need until you've rebuilt. >> a huge explosion kills at least 22 people in the saudi arabian capital after a fuel tanker crashes. the trial begins of the whistle-blowing greek journalist charged after trying to expose wealthy tax avoiders. he tells us why he acted. >> the government has lied and have made a mockery of the greek people with this list. they were obliged to pass it to parliament or to the justice system. > w i'm david eades. also coming up in the program -- how does china spread the wealth? we reflect on one of the great challenges facing the next generation of leaders.

and from action man to a man of inaction, does this latest stunt explain president putin's bad back and the cancellation of appointments? >> hello. thanks very much for being with us. millions of americans are grad weight waking up to a third day without power as they continue to count the cost of the superstorm, sandy. within the last hour, new york's subway has resumed a limited service at least. elsewhere, transport and infrastructure remains is he severely affected. today, 70 people are known to have been killed during the storm. on a visit to one of the worst affected areas, new jersey, president obama promised senior officials in all the affected states, 17 of them, that they have a direct line to his staff at the white house. we have this from new york.

>> this island in new jersey, a state that was in the eye of the superstorm. such was the strength of sandy, this boat was tossed into someone's backyard. >> i promise. >> six days before the election, president obama went to see the damage for himself and pledged that the people here wouldn't be forgotten. >> what i can promise you is that the federal government will be working as closely as possible with the state and local officials, and we will not quit until this is done. >> the president's response has earned him compliments from an unlikely source, one of his republican opponents, mitt romney's biggest cheerleaders, new jersey governor chris christie. >> he has worked incredibly closely with me since before the storm hit. i think this is our sixth conversation since the weekend, and it's been a great working

relationship. >> manaloking, new jersey, was already suffering from severe storm damage. in new york city, life remains interrupted. the halloween parade was cancelled, and many residents endured a third scary night in the dark with the main source of life coming from the cars on the road. another terrifying light lit you want sky on monday. this amateur video, posted on youtube, captures the moment when a transformer exploded, knocking out power to more than 300,000 customers in manhattan. and the lack of power is still causing problems. more than 200 patients at bellvue had to be evacuated after their generator failed and the basement flooded. >> i want to thank the national guard, who have been absolutely fabulous, working tirelessly to carry patients down as many as 18 flights of stairs.

they also helped us perform a human bucket brigade on the staircase, to carry you up 13 flights of stairs to make sure our emergency generators continue to operate and provide emergency power. >> and getting around remains difficult. this is what one subway station in lower manhattan looked like. limited subway service will resume today, but car traffic will be restricted. the scars from this storm won't be easily washed away. >> well, let's not forget, 70 people have lost their lives as well. one of those was a young new yorker, jakob, and the bbc's matthew went to meet his mother, who was at her home with her surviving son. >> well, i had three children. i had three sons. and now i have two.

my son, jakob, died monday night. well, monday was hurricane sandy, and he and i were home, and one of his oldest and best friends called him and asked him to come over to spend time with her. her dad, very ill, and she wanted some company. so jake we want out, drove over to his friend's house in a neighboring community, and apparently they took her dog out for a walk, and while they were out walking, a huge tree fell and killed both kids. so, by the morning, i was really concerned, because he still wasn't answering his phone, so i kept calling every 10 minutes, and then finally a man answered his phone, and i said, where's my son? who are you? and he said, i'm detective fineman, and i said where's my son, and he said tell me your

address, i want to come to your apartment. and i kept saying, please, just tell me if my son is alive. is my son alive? and he said, give me your address and your phone number, i'm coming over. when jake told me he was going to jessie's house, i wasn't happy about it, and i said the storm is going to peak, and you should stay home, and jake being jake, who's always thinking about other people and taking care of other people, is just a very sweet, optimistic, caring person. for him, his friend needed him, and i guess when you're 23, you don't think a tree is going to fall on your head. the only thing he was thinking about was being there for his friend, so he went over to her house. he was a really kind, kind person with a very gentle, sweet spirit. it feels like a bad dream, and

when i woke up this morning and realized my son is just never coming home, you know, i keep thinking that we've lost him. >> tough to hear, isn't it, the mother there of jakob, who died in the course of storm sandy. if you want to get in touch to share your experiences of what's gone on in the last few days, do go to our facebook page. you can have a look at pictures and maps of the areas affected. you can talk to others as well and comment on our other main stories if you want. if you prefer twitter, then tweet us, @bbcworld, or you can use the hash tag, #wvys. let's move on now. in athens, the trial has begun of a greek journalist who published a list of more than 2,000 people said to hold bank accounts in switzerland, some of whom are suspected of tax evasion.

costas vaxevanis printed the list, which is given by the former french finance minister, christine lagarde, to her greek counterpart, back in 20, so but it wasn't investigated at the time. it included the names of many businessmen and politicians. mr. vaxevanis told the bbc's mark lowen why he published that list. >> the greek government have lied and made a mockery of this list. they were obliged to pass it to the government or justice system. they didn't do it, and they should be in prison for it. but instead they think i should be the one in prison. i imagine there will be a big reaction, especially from those on the list. even if we didn't say whether it would be anything legal, i didn't expect the government would react so fast and in such a vengeful way by sending 20 special forces towards one journalist to send him to prison. >> well, mark joins us now from athens, where, of course, mark, the trial is underway.

what can we expect today? >> yes, dade, various testimonies are being heard at the moment. the defense lawyer for costas vaxevanis dismissed these charges as outrageous and invalid. he said there was no proof at all that mr. vaxevanis had violated personal data because the list that was published simply had the names of over 2,000 greeks who are said to hold a bank account at hsbc in switzerland and the bank name itself. there was no data published on how much money was in these accounts or these bank account numbers. so when i spoke to him yesterday, he said this is not a breach of privacy. you do not go to your bank account in disguise, and he said that it's not he who should be in the dark, it is the ministers who he believes have covered up this list for the last two years and simply sat on it rather than following up a potentially serious case of tax evasion. >> i was struck, mark, by how little exposure in terms of the

media his story has had in greece. what about the trial? >> there has been more coverage of his trial, and there's certainly been a lot of support for his trial and for his case, certainly his point of view in the social media here and on various blogs. you're right to point out, when he was arrested and the whole leg ard list generally has not -- the lagarde has not received much attention, and there is because there's a serious problem with press freedom and media transparency. there's a very murky world of who owns media here in greece, and there are various allegations of media tycoons behind important sources of media, that there are business heaven, there are vested interests behind the media here t. is not seen as transparent or free. the media watchdog, reporters without borders, places greece only number 70 in terms of the index of press freedom, behind the likes of haiti and mozambique. and that, for a europe union

country. >> mark, thank you very much. we'll keep up on the trial, of course. aaron is here now to have a look at business news. the sort of continual downward spiral of what's become of japanese manufacturers. >> yes, japanese televisions in particular. i mean, do you own a japanese model? >> i do, yeah. i have a sony. >> well, they were once the pride and joy in a living room. i remember as a kid in australia, when we got our first color television, it was a japanese television. we still lived in a hut, of course, but it stood right next door to the didgeridoo, it was great. they were chic, innovative, but they've kind of fallen out of favor, consumers with consumers. stiff competition from l.g. samsung makes more television sets than anybody else in the world. but big problems for the likes of sony, panasonic, and sharp. sony just reported its seventh straight quarterly loss off the back of the losing, the loss in the tv business. panasonic, shares are down 19%

because panasonic came out and said it's going to lose nearly $10 billion this year again, off the back of its tv business. and sharp, sharp seems to be in the worst situation. sharp shares, the value of the sharp company has lost 3/4 of that value just in the year alone. really big, big problems. i'll just speak to an expert, and the problem is they just haven't kept up. they haven't been nimble enough to change innovation or keep up with innovation and redesign their televisions. i'll have more with you in about half an hour. also chinese manufacturing numbers are up for the first time in three months, good sign for china. i'll talk with you more on that. >> i suppose you lived by a hillabong. >> how did you know! >> i thought i'd seen you somewhere before. aaron, thanks very much indeed. more from air nondue course. let's move on. saudi arabia, in fact, at least 22 people have been killed, this after an oil tanker crashed in the saudi capital, riyadh. state tv is also reporting more than 100 have been injured.

you can see the aftermath here much the vehicle reportedly crashed into a concrete flyover, and that is a sense of the sort of damage that's been done as a result of all that. and i think we can speak now to our reporter, who joins me from the bbc's arabic service. i wonder what more you can tell us about this. >> all the information we've got so far from the news agency and eyewitness accounts, they all talk about a road traffic accident, an unfortunate one, when the driver of that gas tanker was surprised to see traffic in front of him stationary because of another road accident. he tried to veer off, and it was a very heavy tanker, and all i could find was another flyover that hit -- he hit that pylon, and eyewitnesses also talk about, as soon as it happened, a gas in the tanker

allowed a big cloud of gas to come out of the tanker and through the area, and as soon as flames caught with the tanker, the flames were spread all over the place, destroying the residence, as well as shops nearby. do we get a sense it's under control now at least? >> well, so far, the emergence of confidence have been too busy cleaning up the area and trying to also fend for the casualties, the injured, and get as much as possible from the circumstances, and also try to make sure that there is no foul play, because people would have expected all sorts of scenarios before they realized what had actually happened. in a way, yes, things are under control, but at the moment also, there are many more reports coming through, trying to ascertain what happened and

what are the results, what are the results of that, plus the casualty figure also being updated by the second. >> yeah, understandable. thank you very much. you're watching "bbc world news." i'm david eades. plenty more still to bring you, including this -- >> that was a year ago, the real-life slum dog millionaire who won a million, how has his life changed since then? in south asia, a cyclone has battered the southern india states. many of the coastal areas are pretty low lying, and up to 100,000 people have had to be evacuated. we understand seven people have been killed. five sailors also missing after an oil tanker ran aground off the city of chanai. our correspondent is there. >> a lot of the crew were

rescued, some of them yesterday, a few early this morning, when two helicopters were able to get some of them off that ship. but five sailors are still missing. they've been missing since yesterday. in fact, there's growing concern now over their safety quite simply because it's been something like 20 hours since it went missing. the wind here has picked up a bit, but it's knock like the 100-kilometer winds that we experienced when the cyclone first made landfall yesterday. a lot of people, as you can see, are out on the beach, mainly to look at the ship mind me. there's a lot of oil on that tanker, and they are worried as it drifts closer to shore, they're concerned that some of that oil might actually come out of that ship and create an even bigger problem. >> how much damage has this cyclone actually caused to infrastructure mostly? >> well, we had a lot of heavy wind and rain along this entire coast. as you mentioned, a lot of it low lying. a lot of people have been

evacuated prior to the storm hitting, something like 100,000 people have moved on to higher ground to temporary shelters. we do understand there's been extensive damage to roads, electricity poles have come down, trees have been brought down, so quite a bit of damage to the infrastructure. perhaps not so much to homes. we'll know in a few days the extent of the damage, because a lot of this is farmland, which is what people depend on, farming and fishing, both of which have been affected quite a bit over the past 24 hours. >> this is "bbc world news" with me, david eades. these are the headlines this hour -- president obama promises to help people recovering from the storm, which has battered the northeastern united states. a huge explosion kills at least 22 people in the saudi arabian capital, riyadh, after a fuel tanker crashes into a flyover.

just one week from now, china's communist party will gather in beijing to appoint new leaders, a once-in-a-decade event. one of the most urgent tasks will be tackling the growing gap between rich and poor. despite china's rapid economic rise, more than 100 million people are still living below the poverty line. damien gramatica reports from one of the most impoverished states. >> in china's poorest province, deep in its rural heart, life still amples by. the economic boom in the cities and along the coast is happening far from here. nevertheless, today they're celebrated. this is a first child. there's a bank question, gifts, a refrigerator, a new bed. he could never afford these himself.

the farmer and laborer has earned nothing this year. he's one of over 100 million chinese in its villages still living below the poverty line. >> it's not fair. i've been to the cities. they're rich, eat in fancy restaurants every day. my life doesn't compare. >> china's economic growth has been deeply unfair. some have not benefited much. it's a problem china's next leaders know they must tackle, the gap ever wider. it may not be sustainable. a three-hour flight away is beijing, a megacity of almost 20 million. it feels like a different country. the world's most expensive designer labels target a new class of urban he let's. the poor are here, too. alongside the fabulously wealthy, who join the global

rich league. almost a million chinese are now dollar millionaires. they dress in designer outfits, which cost more than this man and his village have had in a lifetime. >> in the west, polo is for the elite n. china, we're rich now, so we want what's fashionable and sophisticated. it's natural. >> nearby, a replica chateau, a playground for china's rising classes. they trample the grapes and sample wines, will he sure and luxury, all new to china. the most pricey vintage costs 1,000 pounds a bottle. 1,000 pounds is what this man are paying for their castle-themed wedding photos. his costume, a european dandy, part of the package. it's almost an entire month of their earnings as real estate agents.

they're middle class, but they don't feel particularly well off. they can't afford to buy a flat in increasingly pricey beijing. >> our lives are better than the poorest, but far worse than the rich. it's not great. we're stuck in the middle. >> the poorest feel stuck, too, in the countryside. it's why china's communist rulers say tackling inequality is now one of the most urgent tasks, feeling if they fail, it could undermine legitimacy of their one-party rule. damian grammaticas, bbc news. >> the russian president, vladimir putin, has postponed a series of trips until december, prompting further speculation about his well-being. kremlin officials have confirmed that he pulled a muscle, but said it wasn't affecting his work. the bbc's daniel sanford has more. >> speculation over the last few weeks about why he's been canceling so many foreign trips, why he's hardly seen outside his country house,

which is a few kilometers outside moscow. one of the agencies last week ran a story that he had a bad back and might even need an operation. today, his spokesman has confirmed that, yes, president putin has, in his words, pulled a muscle, though he wouldn't say what muscle that was. but he absolutely denied that vladimir putin has injured his back in that publicity stunt, which you may remember from a few weeks ago, when he went flying a microcraft, in a way of encouraging rare siberian birds to fly south for the winter. it was viewed as a publicity stunt largely gone wrong, and it may be it's gotten even worse, if it's caused such a bad injury to his back. he's having to cancel so many foreign trips. >> you wouldn't be surprised if it caused injury to his back, just looking at the pictures there. we'll see just how long he's out of the frame. daniel, thanks a lot. now, to the man dubbed the real slumdog millionaire after he

became the first person to win the indian version of the program "who wants to be an millionaire." a year on, how has he spent his winnings? has the money changed him? we went to meet him. >> this was the million dollar moment. what happened next? 12 months on, and sushil kumar still shares the same rented house with his family. so, how has he spent his money? it cost $500, the generator means he no longer has to put up with the daily power cuts here. that's his biggest buy, this plot of land next door. he's building a large house for himself, his parents, his wife, his brothers, and their families.

>> after i won, i started getting letters asking for money to pay for people's operations, land, their children's weddings. but in our society, if you help one person, thousands start coming. we only helped people we were close to. a million is a lot, but if you help everyone, you through all in one day. >> sushil quit his job and now spends his days at home with his family. he bought his first-ever computer and dreams of becoming a psychology lecturer. but for his parents, it's the little things which matter most. >> before, we could only buy half a liter of milk, but now we get two or three liters. we can afford expensive vegetables too. >> sushil's win is a reflection of the new and changing india, when more people are coming into wealth. but just outside sushil use hose, we also see the other india, poverty, where according

to one recent report, 95% of the population lives on less than $10,000 a year. a year ago, sushil was earning far less than that. now he's dropping shoulders with some of india's best-known stars and is a celebrity himself. he was even invited on to this show, the indian version of "dancing with the stars." >> overnight i became known across india, and many of my problems are automatically solved. i feel it's miraculous. i never wanted to become a millionaire. god made me one. >> sushil's priority now is father hood. his wife, whom he married not long before, is due to give birth very soon. the prize money has secured a comfortable future for the couple and offers a very different life for their child. >> good luck to the pair of them. if you want to keep in touch, do it on twitter.

i'm @davideades. like to hear from you. bye for now. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newmans own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers use their expertise in global finance to guide you through the business strategies and opportunities of international commerce. we put our extended global network to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you?

>> bbc world news was presented by kcet los angeles.